So, for anyone who missed it, here’s what MTV’s cut of Profane Gourmet looked like. This thing was chopped down to 84 seconds, but I’m happy to say that it still looks pretty good.
And here’s our old version, for comparison.
Posted by Nate Kushner at 01:57 AM | Comments (7702) | TrackBack
Well, we are happy to announce what is perhaps the biggest thing that has happened to A Week of Kindness. Namely, that The Profane Gourmet is going to be played on MTV on Thursday night as part of the sketch show Short Circuitz. That’s this Thursday, at 10:30 on MTV.
There’s also a new show!
A Week of Kindness at RiFiFi!
Saturday, July 21st, at 8 PM
Appearing with Slightly Known People
RiFiFi: 332 E. 11th St, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.
Cover is $5, and there’s a good chance of getting a free shot at the end!
Posted by Nate Kushner at 02:08 AM | Comments (8879) | TrackBack
…who wants to be able to say, “Hey, I’ve shared Miis with Nate from the famous sketch group A Week of Kindness”? Put your number in the comments in the next day or two, before the spambots get here, and I’ll add you.
You’ll also want to add my number into your Wii address book, which is
5677 7920 5943 6976.
It’s like sending your ghost to watch my ghost play tennis…while we’re both still alive!
Posted by Nate Kushner at 10:17 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Or at least they were awesome enough to show this when I was about 7 or 8 and change my life. The time I saw this on TV was sort of a point of no return as far as my development as a “weird kid” was concerned. If you know me at all, try to imagine me at that age watching David Byrne act like a spazz for the first time. (Yes, I now know that that video was kind of meant as sort of a survey course of different kinds of religious trances from around the world, but until today I ooly remembered the part where David Byrne was a spazz. Either interpretation is pretty awesome, actually.)
Also, let’s do some math for a second. “Remain in Light” came out in 1980, and it was around 1987 that I saw this on MTV, meaning that there was a point in history where MTV would show an at-least-6-year-old video just because it was awesome. Can you imagine them ever showing a video from the year 2000 today? or even from 2004?
Posted by Nate Kushner at 11:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ok, two different ads I’ve seen on television today have used the same Garage Band loops that I used to make the lizard/moth segment of the Nature Footage sketch. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you’d best see Barnyard Jamboree. Mark your calendars for 12/10 and/or 12/17)
One of them is for the Chubb Institute, one of New York’s fine trade schools.
The other is for Mike Bloomberg’s mayoral campaign. His $65+ million mayoral campaign which culminates in the elections tomorrow.
Now, these are free-to-use, no-royalties loops, so neither Chubb, nor Bloomsy, nor Apple, nor I have infringed upon each other, so no harm done. But it still makes me happy to know that, somewhere inside that bloated campaign budget is a couple thousand bucks that some Mac geek got paid for the 5 minutes of work it took to score that campaign ad. I hope he or she didn’t tell anybody how easy it was.
Posted by Nate Kushner at 03:40 PM | Comments (4)
If there was an Olympic sport where the object was to graduate from schools that Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek graduated from, I would beat everybody in A Week of Kindness by a factor of three*
*Clearview Elementary School is the third one. There's no reason you should know that, and many reasons why you shouldn't.
Posted by Nate Kushner at 08:14 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
I had the chance to see a test taping last night of a new show that starts Monday on Comedy Central, the Colbert Report. Test tapings are practice runs that are not intended to make it to the air, but are taped as ifthey were the real thing, in order for the cast and crew to get the kinks of the format worked out before the show actually starts. For those readers who are comedy nerds with high hopes for this show, I’d like to share my impressions.
First, the basics of what the show is, in case you hadn’t known. The show is going to be a fake opinion show (The Bill O’Reilly, Hannity and Colmes school of opinion show) in the same way that the Daily Show is a fake news show. The T in “Report” is as silent as the one in “Colbert.”
Second, Stephen Colbert is a comedy machine who is always on. He never for one second stopped entertaining. Even during those downtimes when the mikes were off for pretend commercial breaks, he was always doing some silly mime or dance thing. He took a Q&A before the taping as well, and when one audience member Q’d him with a “What’s with all the gay?,” he didn’t miss a beat on the yes-and, and A’d right back with “I just crave cock!”
Three, he’s human too. He has that bad-actor habit, unfortunately, of mouthing the lines of his scene partner. Not that you would have been able to see it, since the scene in question was between him at a desk and a soldier against a green screen, with the cameras switching to the one talking. But I found it kind of endearing.
Four, he’s got some ways to go as an inteviewer, but it’s not like he won’t get there. The test subject that particular night was a host of Good Morning America, poo on me for not remembering the name of the guy. It wasn’t a bad interview, but Colbert had enough ums and other audible pauses to make me remark about it. These and a couple of other small reasons added up to my conclusion that the interview was the weakest part of the show. It ended with a challenge, in which the interviewee had to name 14 of the cohosts he’s worked with in his broadcasting career. The idea is that at the end of every interview, Colbert will ask a question designed to stump the guest. He even said “At the Colbert Report, the interview isn’t over until the guest gets nailed,” leading me to think that they’re planning this stump-the-guest thing as a nightly bit. I think it’ll get old.
Five, it’s going to seriously be a really good show. The writing is sharp, particularly the segment making fun of foreign newpapers, which is always good sport, and the format is a logical supplement to the Daily Show. Unlike the Daily Show, though, they did some funny bits incorporating the staff as characters playing staff members.
Anyway, it ain’t perfect yet, but check it out starting on Monday with my endorsement. Your high hopes are quite founded.
Posted by Nate Kushner at 12:17 AM | Comments (2)
I definitely just saw a TV ad for a car dealership. Fine.
Except I swear, the score for the ad was an instrumental version of “What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?”
I guess what they would have us do with a drunken sailor is put him in a brand new car…earlye in the morning.
As a proud member of Mothers Against Drunk Sailors, Drivers Against Sober Sailing, Sailors Against Drunk Mothering, and Drinkers Against Drunk Drinking, I have to call shenanigans.
Posted by Nate Kushner at 11:36 PM | Comments (3)
At the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre:
307 W. 26th St, near 8th Avenue.
Come see us close out the second night of the fourth annual New York Sketchfest with a show we call "Bing Crosby's Interdimensional Family Hour," featuring a whole crapload of new material!
Appearing with Trophy Dad
Tickets are $10 (or $5 for UCB students) and can be reserved here.
Also available are Friday night passes for $40 ($20 for UCB students) or 3-night festival passes for $100 ($50 for students).
The next The A Week of Kindness show is Monday, July 2nd at Pianos:
158 Ludlow at Stanton (Take the J, M, Z, or F to Delancey/Essex)
Free!
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